Musings: A Wild Finish in Philly

The Penguins’ point streak continues after a wild finish in Philly. They are now 5-0-2 in their last seven and 7-2-2 on the season after a 3-2 shootout loss to the Flyers.

Here’s a quick summary of what happened down the stretch, as the Battle of Pennsylvania remains alive and well...

• Sidney Crosby tied the game with his eighth goal of the year.
• The Penguins got a power play at the start of overtime, and Evgeni Malkin appeared to score, but he had gotten on the ice before Arturs Silovs got to the bench. So, the goal didn’t count, but fortunately, too many men penalties aren’t assessed in that situation.
• Pittsburgh didn’t convert on their man-advantage, then killed off a Flyers power play awarded with 1:46 to go.
• The Flyers thought they won it with 28 seconds left, but video review determined the play was offside, so the goal was overturned.
• A scrum ensued after the horn sounded. Four skaters were assessed misconducts on both sides. For Pittsburgh, it was Noel Acciari, Ryan Shea, Parker Wotherspoon and Crosby, who left the bench. That meant the captain wasn’t eligible for the shootout.
• Malkin scored, while Bryan Rust and Ville Koivunen were stopped.

“It was crazy,” Erik Karlsson said. “Yeah, that was something.”

Silovs was the biggest reason the Penguins came away with a point when they didn’t have their best while playing their third game in four nights.

"We're playing back-to-back. It's a little bit harder, energy-wise, for guys to be 100% all the time," Silovs said. "I think it's important to be there for them, and just giving that comfort on the bench. I think we got better. Managed to tie the game and get a point."

The 24-year-old, who has been rotating starts with Tristan Jarry, kept his team in the game all night – particularly in the first two-thirds. He made a number of highlight-reel saves on quality chances in the middle frame to ensure the deficit stayed at 2-1.

“He played great for us, especially the first 40 minutes where I think that we didn't really have it,” Karlsson said. “We weren't really connecting, and we put him in some tough situations, but he held strong. And at the end of the day, he ended up getting us one point today, which we'll gladly take. And we'll learn and move on from this game.”

Justin Brazeau had opened the scoring just over midway through the first period. As per Penguins PR in a phenomenal post on X, no offseason acquisition has more goals (6) or points (12) than the forward, who’s a lethal combination of size and hands. The Big Boy Line with Brazeau, Anthony Mantha and Malkin has been something else.

But the Flyers battled back with some strong play on special teams. They scored on the man-advantage and then seconds after going back to full strength. Meanwhile, the Penguins were unable to convert either of their power plays up to that point, after entering the game ranked second in the NHL in that category.

They turned it around somewhat in the final frame, with Crosby – who else? – getting the equalizer. The 38-year-old now has eight goals in the first 11 games after becoming the ninth player in NHL history to record 1,700 points.

“He's obviously a huge part of this team, of this league, and of this sport in general,” Karlsson said. “And he's still showing that.”

The Penguins made a couple of lineup changes. Ben Kindel slotted back in up top and had some jump. The 18-year-old’s line with Tommy Novak and fellow rookie Koivunen had one particularly good shift in the first period where they nearly scored.

Rookie blueliner Harrison Brunicke came out, with the recently recalled Owen Pickering making his season debut for Pittsburgh. The 21-year-old had picked up a goal and three assists in seven games for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

“I thought he had a pretty good camp. We had some tough decisions at the end of it, and he goes to Wilkes, and he's playing well, good reports, good viewings,” Muse said of the 2022 first-round pick, who got 25 games of NHL experience last season.

Here are the highlights from what Muse had to say after the game.

Did you get an explanation on Sid at the end? It looked like you were yelling on the bench, ‘That's wrong, that's wrong.’ Yeah, I’ll just leave that between me and the refs. Just keep quiet on that one.

On the illegal substitution with Malkin, did you think he left the bench too early? You feel like it was the right call to advocate for the illegal substitution? Yeah, we left too early.

In terms of the game, looked like the second period was a bit of a struggle for you guys. What changed in the third period to kind of find some rhythm? In the third period, I thought we got back to what’s been working, what was working there in the second and third period there against St. Louis. I thought we were playing north, we were playing fast, guys were supporting each other. I thought it got away from us there in the second, for way too long. I think it's just, we need to be more consistent with that. A lot of it just has to do with I think everybody kind of being on the same page. A lot of it starts with our puck movement and just the puck support. In the second period, we just kind of got too stretched out. So now, when we do get the puck, we're not really in good positions there to continue to move up ice. When that's happening, now you're defending more, and it can be an ugly cycle. And that's what we saw in the second period. I thought we got back to more of the game that we want to play there in the third period. But again, we want to be more consistent with the overall play.

The other side of that is your goalie really kept you in that game and stole a point for you tonight, especially in the second and third period. Can you talk about just how well he played? Yeah, he made some big saves there. I think especially in the second period. There was definitely some in the third, but the second especially, I thought there was a lot coming at us, and we weren't generating as much as we want to. And so, he came up big there.

I know you expect a lot from your veteran stars, but are you amazed at how much production you've gotten from them so far? I wouldn't say amazed. I mean, yeah, these guys have been playing at a very high level for a very long time. They're continuing to do it, and I think we're also getting contributions from other guys throughout the lineup. And we need that. We need it to be everybody. And so, am I surprised that we're getting that from them? I'm not. We need to make sure, though, it also continues to be contributions from everybody. That goal Braz scores, that was a big one there to start the game, and obviously it ended up factoring in to help us get a point. And on different nights, it's other guys that are chipping in. Those guys hold themselves to a very high level. They're going to continue to. That's not going to change. We need other guys, also, to be coming in and making those contributions, which a lot of nights we have had. So, again – third period was better, second period, we got a lot to clean up there.

When Sid was ineligible for the shootout, what led you to go with Ville to shoot third? Just knowing his past. Going through, talking with (WBS Head Coach) Kirk McDonald prior to the year. I don't know if he had an actual shootout yet this year, he had a penalty shot. So, we've seen it before. Obviously, we're going to have a little bit of background on each guy and how they've done, and thought we’d put him out there.

Overtime can be a bit of a roller coaster. Have you ever experienced one as wild as this, with two goals taken off the board, and little taste of the Flyers rivalry there? I mean, you've seen some kind of crazy ones with the up and back. With the special teams, the one that got called back on us, like, I think kind of quickly saw the reason why. And then obviously, the other one I thought was that was pretty clear offsides. They got that right pretty quickly. So, I think you factor in both teams having a power play opportunity, it changes I guess the feel of the overtime quite a bit in that respect. So yeah, and then at the end of the game, it is what it is.